Meet Mark

Let me introduce myself. My name is Mark Sisson. I’m 63 years young. I live and work in Malibu, California. In a past life I was a professional marathoner and triathlete. Now my life goal is to help 100 million people get healthy. I started this blog in 2006 to empower people to take full responsibility for their own health and enjoyment of life by investigating, discussing, and critically rethinking everything we’ve assumed to be true about health and wellness...

Category: Weight Loss

By Sara | November 15 2006

Ladies, I’m concerned about the skinny-fat among us. You know what I’m talking about. Skinny-fat women might look nice in a v-neck, but they’d sooner crawl into a hole than expose an upper arm or leg. This is what happens when you become “skinny fat” instead of genuinely lean and fit (where the muscle and fat are fairly evenly distributed and you have a lot less cellulite). While you can’t fight your body’s natural shape, you can certainly maximize what you’ve got. What I’m talking about is the difference between curvy and super-fit Gabby Reece or Evangeline Lilly and certain starving-yet-sagging starlets (I won’t name names, mainly because there are too many these days and who can be bothered to keep track). Skinny-fatness strikes women a lot more than men. I think this is mainly because men aren’t afraid of lifting weights to lose weight (and, to be fair, men naturally do have so much more muscle and far less fat). We women, on the other hand, evidently prefer inventing bizarre and complicated diet regimens revolving around arcane preparation rituals, subsistence on one food group or arbitrary calorie limits (whoever said women were bad at math has never met a woman 2 weeks before her high school reunion or 2 days before a date). Simply dieting will eliminate weight, but it won’t tone anything. And because of our unique feminine physiology, the fat cells in our lower body are world-class clingers. But before you get too depressed about the latest Kate Moss advertisement, consider this: I’m bringing this up because skinny-fatness is about a lot more than physical appearance. In fact, your dress size has nothing on the bigger issue – health. The good news: simply being skinny is not akin to being healthy. In fact, the skinnier you get, the more you’re at risk for things like osteoporosis! (There I go beating that llama again.) The less muscle you have, the less work your bones have to do, and they begin to shed that incredibly valuable osseous material: your bones, which are, in fact, living tissues directly related to your blood, immune system, strength, longevity – even your mood. You know how coral reefs are actually living organisms that provide all sorts of vital and irreplaceable functions to the fish and plants and water surrounding them? Your bones are your body’s coral reef. You have to feed them, and weight-bearing activity = food for bones. In this country of aerobic fanatics and serial dieters, is it any wonder American women have such high rates of osteoporosis and a perpetual state of skinny-fatness? I watched my own mother live on Tab and jazzercise during the early 80s, and now, faced with bone trouble, she’ll be the first to tell you: lift something! Who wants to look like Nicole Ritchie, now seriously? I’d rather look like Evangeline! There’s only ONE solution to the problems we women face: osteoporosis, beach season, and the belly that won’t budge. The solution is weight-bearing activity. … Continue reading “Skinny-Fat”

By Aaron | November 15 2006

Tracking your macronutrient intake is a surefire way to lose weight. Unfortunately, the process of tabulating fat/protein/carb grams for everything you consume has, in the past, been so time-consuming and frustrating hardly anyone has the patience or time to be so diligent.

Lucky for us, the folks at The Daily Plate agree – which is why they have created a free website that simplifies this process! Register yourself at the Plate and search for the foods you eat on a day-to-day basis. Worried your eats won’t be on there? No need! The Daily Plate has over 100,000 food items from which to choose, and are adding more every day. Whether you’re eating generic foods like apples, or brand-specific items like Bird’s Eye Frozen Peas, you can be certain you’ll find it in their food database.

Once you have selected what you’ve eaten, The Daily Plate automatically does the math for you and lets you view the total amount of fat, protein, carbohydrates and calories you have munched so far.

The uses of The Daily Plate don’t stop there, though. In addition to keeping an online food journal, there are other features: a calorie counter, a fitness log, and a way to keep track of your water intake. You can even input your weight goals, as well as receive advice and guidelines on how to see those goals through. Start watching what you eat with this free online tool, and start seeing results. It’s comprehensive, fast, and you don’t have to have an I.T. department to figure out how to use it. Try it out for yourself today!